Latest news with #MontanaSenate
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Montana Senate adopts rules on 69th day of Legislature
A sign outside the printing room at the Montana Capitol. The Senate passed rules on the 69th day of the session, paving the way for official rule books to be printed. (Micah Drew/ Daily Montanan) On the 69th day of the 69th legislative session, the Montana Senate adopted permanent rules for the chamber, more than three months after gaveling in to do business. Less than 10 minutes into the start of the 2025 Legislature, the Senate was thrown into disarray when a coalition of Democrats and moderate Republicans blocked the GOP majority from passing the rules agreed upon by leadership. The dispute was mostly centered around committee assignments, which the coalition said diluted their ability to influence legislation. The upper chamber has been operating under temporary rules ever since that first day, but finally reached an agreement this week on permanent rules. 'I think we've ironed out most of our differences,' said Senate Majority Leader Tom McGillvray, R-Billings, during a press availability with reporters ahead of the vote. 'It's nice to have a set of rules you can take in the next session, get a rule book.' On the Senate floor Tuesday, McGillvray outlined the changes to the existing rules structure, which included removing an Executive Review Committee that drew ire early on, changing several procedural deadlines for the chamber, and giving the minority leader approval over minority appointments to committees. The new rules also require the Senate president to receive 'advance concurrence,' or approval, from the minority leader on the composition of conference committees — a select group of lawmakers assigned to iron out amendments to bills if both chambers do not agree on a final product — giving Democrats more power heading into the final weeks of the session when more bills are expected to end up workshopped that way. Previously, the minority leader only had to be consulted. The Senate passed the rules resolution, SR 5, on a 37-13 vote.
Yahoo
01-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Lawmakers look to build artificial intelligence framework for Montana
The Montana Senate is seen during the Wednesday, February 12, 2025 session. (Nathaniel Bailey for the Daily Montanan) Montana lawmakers are trying to use this session to build a framework for the usage of artificial intelligence in the state. Lawmakers discussed two AI bills on Friday. Senate Bill 212, brought by Sen. Daniel Zolnikov, R-Billings, would establish the Right to Compute Act, which seeks to protect the individual use AI, and allow the state to restrict it in limited circumstances. It received unanimous approval on second reading, putting it one vote from Senate passage. The Montana Legislature is also taking a close look at the use of AI by health insurance companies, as Rep. Jill Cohenour, D-Helena had a hearing in the House Business and Labor Committee for House Bill 556. Cohenour has several other AI bills, including HB 514, which deals with name, image and likeness rights. The bill passed the Senate on a 97-1 vote on Friday afternoon. Cohenour also has House Bill 513, which would expand and create penalties for use of real and digitally fabricated sexually explicit images. Zolnikov is co-sponsoring all three of Cohenour's House bills. Zolnikov said SB 212 bill provides a framework for using emerging artificial intelligence technology in the state. The bill's intent is not to fully ban artificial intelligence, and Zolnikov said he wants Montana to avoid 'falling in the trap of supporting big tech versus open (source).' It's an attempt to create tech legislation that seeks to avoid freezing out small innovators and anyone else that wants to use artificial intelligence for their own purposes. And even then, there's nothing in the bill explicitly prohibiting or even discouraging a larger company that uses artificial intelligence from setting up shop in Montana, or even the state itself using it . Still, with anything new, problems can arise, and Zolnikov's bill keeps the state's ability to create regulatory language as time passes and the issue evolves. Cohenour's bills address some of these exact situations. 'There's a new world,' Zolnikov said in an interview. 'Let's open the door and then start restricting in a narrow, detailed way, not like other states that are basically trying to ban everything.' Zolnikov's bill preserves the 'right to compute,' with the bill text stating, 'Any restrictions placed by the government on the ability to privately own or make use of computational resources for lawful purposes must be limited to those demonstrably necessary and narrowly tailored to fulfill a compelling government interest.' Additionally, the bill would make any 'critical infrastructure facility' that uses artificial intelligence to run its systems have a risk management policy to fall back on if there are issues. Critical infrastructure facility is a defined term that includes things like electric substations, wastewater treatment plants, dams and oil refineries. Cohenour's AI bills fit into the framework of Zolnikov's bill, addressing some of the 'narrow' issues legislators are looking to fix. On Friday, House Bill 556, which would legislate the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare decisions, got a hearing in the House Business and Labor Committee. 'I've interacted with a couple of the insurance folks, and I asked for a little bit of information from them, and they're all running away from me now,' Cohenour said in an interview Thursday. 'So this is going to be really fascinating tomorrow. I'm sure I'm going to get dog piled on, but really, AI and algorithms should not be determining what kind of healthcare somebody gets. And that's what that bill is all about.' Cohenour's prediction was accurate. BlueCross BlueShield Montana came out strongly in opposition to the bill. The insurance company argued it was not using artificial intelligence to deny medical care, only to approve it. 'BCBSMT may use automated approval technology to approve utilization review requests but never to deny,' BlueCross BlueShield Montana spokesperson Bryan Campen wrote in an emailed response to the Daily Montanan. 'Requests not automatically approved are reviewed by a clinician.' Following the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, there was a hurricane of anger directed at health insurance providers by the public. One source of that emotion has been artificial intelligence denying claims, and Boston's NPR affiliate reported on a lawsuit filed against UnitedHealthcare alleging exactly that. Class action lawsuits have also been filed against Humana and Cigna for using artificial intelligence to deny insurance claims. While it doesn't appear BlueCross BlueShield Montana has been sued over the issue, Blue Shield of California has. A lawsuit filed last year claimed Blue Shield of California was using a 'unlawful and fraudulent Artificial-Intelligence ('AI') powered prior authorization and review system of their insureds' insurance claims.' Drew Cziok, the director of government relations for BlueCross BlueShield of Montana, spoke against Cohenour's bill, saying it was 'vague.' 'For us, AI augments human judgment,' Cziok said. 'It helps approve services faster. So sometimes this means as soon as everything is submitted, an automated system is able to review a claim and approve it on the spot.' The bill also makes AI software available for inspection by regulatory agencies. 'They should have procedures. They should open their books to make sure we aren't introducing bias when algorithms learn on their own,' Cohenour said on Friday morning. 'That is scary stuff.' The Committee did not take executive action on the bill on Friday. Cohenour's other two bills also deal with some of the narrow issues Zolnikov's legislation allows the state to regulate. House Bill 514, dealing with a person's name, image and likeness, was broadly popular in the House, passing the chamber with just one vote against it. NIL has been most commonly associated with college athletics. Courts have allowed for college athletes to be paid, saying they own their name, image and likeness and should be able to profit off of it. Cohenour's House Bill 514 would extend that legal protection to all Montanans. 'A lot of states are starting to bring this stuff forward, and we all feel like we need to get in front of it,' Cohenour said. 'I mean, it's developing so fast that we're way behind the eight ball.' The Helena representative's other bill strengthens the state's Privacy In Communications laws. It defines 'digitally fabricated,' which is stated in the proposed bill as, 'using technical means, such as artificial intelligence, to create media that realistically misrepresents an identifiable individual as engaging in conduct in which the identifiable individual did not engage.' Breaking the law would be a misdemeanor on first offense, punishable by a $500 fine, six months in county jail, or both. A subsequent offense would be a felony. It also seeks to protect against 'sextortion' which the Federal Bureau of Investigation says it has seen a rise in, specifically amongst minors. This is something Cohenour is concerned about. It has broad bipartisan support and Democratic Minority Leader Rep. Katie Sullivan, D-Missoula, House speaker Pro Tem Rep. Katie Zolnikov, R-Billings, and Senate President Pro Tempore Sen. Kenneth Bogner, R-Miles City, are all co-sponsors. 'Basically the (updates to the) privacy and communication law allows for you to bring an action against somebody that might do a real picture or an AI generated picture, to be able to say that that's also a crime,' Cohenour said. Other bills, including Senate Bill 452 brought by Sen. Daniel Emrich, R-Great Falls, would require, 'disclosures of the use of artificial intelligence by manufacturers of online media.' That bill had a committee hearing on Saturday morning. Additionally, Sen. Janet Ellis, D-Helena, introduced Senate Bill 25, which would outlaw the usage of AI by candidates or political parties within 60 days of an election, unless the media is clearly marked as generated by an artificial intelligence program. That bill passed the Senate's State Administration committee on an 8-1 vote. Sen. Laura Smith, D-Helena, also had legislation move forward to outlaw so-called 'AI deep fakes,' which the proposed bill, Senate Bill 413, refers to as 'synthetic media.' SB 413 moved out of the Senate Judiciary Committee in a unanimous vote.
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Marathon evening floor session confirms continued Senate GOP fracture
The Montana Senate is seen during the Wednesday, February 12, 2025 session. (Nathaniel Bailey for the Daily Montanan) With a frigid snowstorm outside, and bowls of popcorn Doordashed from Cinemark and mounting tensions inside, the Montana Senate held a late-night floor session on Monday, renewing the power struggles within the chamber. Convening after sunset, a coalition of nine Republicans and the Senate's 18 Democrats flexed its 'working majority' muscles to run the floor for more than three hours. The group rearranged committee assignments and moved 20 House bills from the Senate President's desk into committee — allowable actions, but ones normally undertaken by leadership. 'Absolutely ridiculous. It's absurd,' Senate Majority Leader Tom McGillvray, R-Billings, said. 'In 20 years, we've never seen this kind of antics.' The actions on the floor, led by Sen. Josh Kassmier, R-Fort Benton, represented the latest show of power for the coalition government that formed on the first day of the session when minority leader Sen. Pat Flowers led a vote not to adopt rules and committee assignments decided by GOP leadership. Since then, accusations of politicking, stalled Senate actions and an ethical and criminal investigation into one of the nine Republican senators have heightened tensions and deepened the political divides in the upper chamber. 'I think the goal is to make it look like there's been nefarious deeds done with House bills, by leadership, to try to discredit leadership and then make a further decision to get rid of leadership.' said Sen. Daniel Zolnikov, R-Billings. After the committee assignments changed, Kassmier announced he had more than 20 additional motions to make, including referring a series of House bills transmitted to the Senate to a committee. Kassmier said there were dozens of bills sitting on the Senate President's desk waiting to be referred to committee, many which were transmitted weeks ago. 'I don't know why we'd hold bills,' Kassmier said. 'I would think we should get them out to committee and get them scheduled for hearings and not be holding up any House bills so they don't hold up our Senate bills.' While in the lower chamber, House rules require the Speaker refer bills to committee within two days of transmission from the Senate, but no similar rule exists for the Senate. According to Senate Republicans, there were between 45 and 70 House bills waiting for referral earlier this week, depending on the day, with around 10 to 15 bills coming from the House each day, and around the same number getting referred to committee each day. Ellsworth urged members to support all 20 motions to refer bills, saying that if a committee has a bill in hand, they can choose when to schedule it based on workload. 'This is what we do. We schedule bills,' Ellsworth said. 'This is the process.' Ellsworth's continued alignment with Democrats and 'The Nine' has furthered the rift in the Senate following a report that he'd procured a $170,100 contract with a business associate late last year. The Legislative Audit Division released findings that the contract flouted state procurement laws and Ellsworth had abused his former role as Senate president, wasting state resources. The Senate convened its Ethics Committee to look into the issue, but later referred the investigation to the Montana Department of Justice. As the floor session continued into the night, pizza showed up outside the Senate doors, sending members back and forth for a bite to eat. During one break when the Senate stood at ease, Sen. Ellie Boldman, a Missoula Democrat, doled out handfuls of the popcorn she'd ordered. Throughout Monday night's debate, several Republicans, including Zolnikov, said that the priority has to be on Senate bills, as the deadline for moving legislation between chambers approaches and the workload will continue to ramp up as legislators' final bill drafts get delivered. Almost all of the 20 motions to refer bills — two had already been referred to committee — were debated on the floor, with several senators rising on every single bill to reiterate their same points and stretch the session longer. Sen. Jeremy Trebas, R-Great Falls, repeatedly questioned why they would rush House bills through the Senate before the transmittal break, why the regular process was being subverted, and mentioned the ongoing snowstorm outside the Capitol windows as a reason to delay bill hearings that could bring members of the public out in bad weather. 'I'm going to wonder on these bills, if the sponsors of the bills are worried about the political fallout that could come from this odd process to refer bills,' Trebas mused. 'Or maybe, on these bills, the votes are already wrapped up.' Zolnikov added that some of the bills appeared to be directed to improper committees, and that the bills needed to be read through in order to make an educated decision on where to send them — he proceeded to read the short titles of several bills into the record to try and gain clarity. While the Republicans in the functional minority continued to decry the actions as arbitrary and obstructive, the working majority claimed they were just trying to do the work they were sent to Helena to do. 'These motions were very simple motions to get bills moving. Had these bills not been sitting for the last six weeks, we would not be here tonight,' said Sen. Russ Tempel, R-Chester, another member of 'The Nine,' who expressed his disappointment with the ongoing debates. 'We can play this game all night if you want, but these were simple motions to get these bills moving, and if you want to mess with it, fine.' Speaking with reporters on Tuesday, Senate President Regier criticized the Democrats and 'solution caucus Republicans' for running the Senate floor. 'To me, it was just an embarrassment, obviously a political play one way or another,' Regier said. 'It was nothing to do with logistics.' Minority Leader Pat Flowers, D-Belgrade, said that he agreed with the tactics Kassmier took during the floor session and wanted to help jump start the referral process so the Senate could 'get moving.' '(Kassmier) made the choice to kind of force this, and we supported him on it,' Flowers said. 'I don't know how much more clear I can be that that should be a priority for the President to get those scheduled… He knows that's part of his responsibility, and hopefully he'll start getting that done.'
Yahoo
17-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Some Judicial reform bills stalling, cast aside
Senator Daniel Emrich, R-Great Falls, votes 'No' during a session of the Montana Senate on February 12, 2025. (Nathaniel Bailey for the Daily Montanan) The GOP-controlled Montana Legislature laid out reining in the judicial branch as a priority at the start of the 69th legislative session currently underway, but that ambition has not smoothly born out as almost a third of its planned actions have failed. The push for judicial reform centers on a suite of 27 bills that came from the interim Judicial Oversight and Reform committee, formed by former Senate President Jason Ellsworth, R-Hamilton, following several court decisions that went against Republicans' favored outcomes. Six weeks into the 90-day session, almost all of those judicial bills have been debated on a chamber floor, with a majority receiving at least one passing vote. However, several bills deemed most important by members of the interim committee have been foiled by a voting bloc comprising all Democrats, who chose not to participate in the committee because they did not want to legitimize its efforts, and a group of moderate Republicans. One bill that died on the Senate floor late last month was Senate Bill 44, carried by Sen. Daniel Emrich, R-Great Falls, which would have codified the separation of powers doctrine in the Montana Constitution into statute, and defined the powers of the Board of Regents of Higher Education and the Board of Public Education. Emrich previously said the bill is 'one of the most important bills you may see this session.' The bill passed second reading in the Senate in a 32-18 party line vote, but the next day failed on third reading 23-26 with eight Republicans switching their votes. More recently, Senate Bill 43, sponsored by Emrich, and House Bill 30 also failed to garner enough support to pass the Senate during the chamber's first Saturday floor session on Feb. 15. SB 43 would have limited the injunctive powers of courts by narrowly tailoring them to the plaintiffs of a case — instead of applying to all Montanans. 'I'm struggling with this one because I didn't fully understand the consequences of how this could be, I guess, abused,' said Ellsworth, who noted the bill came from his committee. 'We've seen activist judges across the country, and I don't think this actually solves that problem, I think it compounds it.' Two Democratic senators, both lawyers, laid out scenarios where a narrowly tailored injunction that applied to specific counties or regions could leave the rest of Montanans having to file their own lawsuits to receive the same protection from an alleged constitutional violation. 'It's unfair to all Montanans,' Sen. Andrea Olsen, D-Missoula, said. 'If you have a constitutional violation to one person, it's a violation to everybody.' The Senate voted down SB 43 in a 21-28 vote. House Bill 30, which passed by a single vote in the lower chamber, was defeated by the same one-vote margin in the Senate. HB 30 would have required the state Supreme Court to uphold legislative acts as constitutional unless challengers can prove otherwise 'beyond a reasonable doubt.' On Valentine's Day, the Senate indefinitely tabled two more bills from the House that failed to garner enough support to pass the upper chamber, but moved a few others through the process. House Bills 35 and 36, which would have moved the Judicial Standards Commission — a body that can discipline and recommend removal of judges for conduct violations — to the Department of Justice and altered its structure, also died. The Senate did pass Senate Bill 20, carried by Ellsworth, prohibiting retired judges from hearing constitutional cases. Lawmakers also approved of House Bill 39, allowing political parties to financially contribute directly to judicial candidates. The bill is now headed to the desk of Gov. Greg Gianforte, who has also called for judicial reform. HB 39 is one of three related bills seeking to make Montana's judicial elections partisan affairs, along with HB 169, which allows judges and judicial candidates to take part in political activities, and SB 42, which will require judges to declare a political party for the ballot. The Senate also passed HB 65 to perform a performance audit of the State Bar of Montana. That bill will have a hearing before the Senate Finance and Claims Committee before returning for a final vote in the Senate. That bill will have to be accepted by the House again after an amendment changed the audit from focusing on finances — as the House approved — to focusing on performance — which was initially rejected by the lower chamber's vote. Two bills have been withdrawn — SB 16 and SB 52 — dealing with legislative committee contempt subpoenas and the creation of a new court. The latter proposal, which would have created a Chancery Court to hear cases dealing with constitutional, land use and business suits, was withdrawn by bill sponsor Sen. McGillvray, who said it was getting too complicated. Instead, he is working to draft a new version of the specialized court for the session, but narrowing the scope to focus to remove the land and business portions. The new version, a 'Governmental Claims court,' would be 'more streamlined and simple, and I think it's gotten more buy-in from more parties,' McGillvray told press last week.
